My naginata blurred into my hand as I charged towards the lookout who turned back towards me with his eyes widening in shock but before he could shout out a warning to any of his friends inside, I stabbed him in the throat, holding the blade horizontally to sever his windpipe.

The young blonde man looked at me with fear in his eyes, to him this world was just a game but that didn’t mean that dying wasn’t terrifying, even with the reduced pain levels being stabbed in the throat had to hurt like hell but I felt absolutely no empathy for the player in front of me and ripped the naginata from his neck before reversing the blade and swinging it back in a short arc to remove his head completely.

As my victim burst into a shower of sparks, I convalesced briefly on the nature of player killing in a game like Soul Core Online. While I was looking around the bar downstairs, I had asked Katy about this particular subject. One of the truly weird things about this game was that it was almost impossible to work out whether someone was a player or NPC just by looking at them. Katy either didn’t know or wasn’t telling me for some reason. I wasn’t entirely sure whether this was to make the game world seem more realistic or not but it did seem quite likely, after all there were few things that broke immersion more than constantly seeing someone’s name and level floating above their head, though I was still thankful that I could identify monsters that way.

Another thing that was interesting about player killing in Soul Core Online was that you received no experience from the act or system designated punishment which was something I hadn’t actually gone over with Harmon and the captain so I quickly made a mental note to do so when we had finished up here, but you did receive Soul Points, in fact I received two for defeating the lookout meaning that the Soul Core for my spellglove now had six points out of the ten it required to reach the next level and the one for my naginata had its first two. So, depending on how many players I ended up having to help Tylie with I might be able to upgrade my spellglove’s Soul Core at the very least.

As I thought this, I heard another scuffle beginning inside the storeroom followed by a yelp that was far too low in pitch to come from Tylie, so it seemed that she was still in a state that she could put up at least a bit of a fight.

Gritting my teeth, I opened the door fast enough that it slammed into the wall revealing a scene that I knew I wouldn’t be able to erase from my brain for the rest of my life. A bloody Tylie was hanging limply between two of the men that had been occupying the table that we had been watching as well as two more that I didn’t recognise which surprised me momentarily before I realised that they must’ve sent a couple of people on ahead to make sure that they weren’t discovered. Snarling I let go of my naginata and raised my right hand, I knew that I wouldn’t have time to run across the room towards them before one of the players could hurt Tylie, so I did the only thing I could think of.

“Equip: Crude Iron Spear!” I shouted fervently hoping that this would work and to the surprise of everyone in the room including me it did , my spear materialised in my hand as I pulled my arm back and launched it at one of the players as the others in the room started to panic, one of the ones holding Tylie even let go of her in his panic.

I had rushed the toss pretty badly, but my spear still took the player who hadn’t released Tylie in the shoulder causing Tylie to slump to the floor as he reflexively grabbed the foreign object that was sticking out of his body screaming in pain as he did so. I was pretty sure that Tylie was unconscious which considering the state that she was in was probably a blessing but that didn’t matter because my priority still had to be getting her out of here as fast as possible, unlike me Tylie couldn’t just respawn.

“Shit!” shouted one of the players raising his hand and sending a wave of fire my way as I threw myself forwards grabbing my naginata off the ground and conjuring a ward as I charged through the flames slashing out at waist level and cutting into someone who grunted in pain. My HP had dropped a fair amount for my reckless manoeuvre, but my ward had allowed me to run through the flames with comparatively minor injuries, but I was sure that if durability was something that was measured in Soul Core Online then my gear would’ve lost at least a few durability points from the flames that I had run through, as it was my stuff was looking a bit scorched around the edges.

As the flames petered out, I looked around at the other players in the room properly for the first time, as I had expected they had reacted pretty quickly and equipped their weapons. Two of them had identical sword and shields of the same simple design that I had seen in the character creation area one of which was still bleeding from their shoulder having removed and discarded my spear. The one that had blasted me with flames was wielding a staff with a small red rock on the end. One was currently bleeding from a gash in his stomach which told me he had been the one who had been unlucky enough to be hit by my wild swing when I rushed through the flames earlier was holding a very rickety looking bow and the final member of their motley crew of degenerates was wielding an axe of such a ridiculous size that there was no way that he would be able to swing it properly in the confined space of the storeroom without hitting one of his friends, the walls or the ceiling of the otherwise abandoned room.

It was obvious from the way that these players were glancing at each other nervously that they hadn’t been expecting company. As the melee fighters closed in on me I stood over Tylie’s unconscious body in much the way that Jameson had protected me from the Terror Chicks the other day, making sure to keep an eye on the mage and archer while allowing the axeman to circle behind me. I wasn’t particularly worried about him due to the ridiculous size of his weapon making it impossible to use in the confined space, but I knew I couldn’t discount him just deciding to attack me unarmed. The bowman took a quick shot at me as the melee fighters edged closer and I quickly deflected the arrow with my Ward which cracked as the arrow bounced off.

Swearing under my breath I thrust my naginata at the swordsman that was favouring his shoulder who cursed far louder than I had as he attempted to brace his shield to receive the blow but as I expected the blade of my weapon skidded up his shield and slashed into his face causing him to stumble back with a pained shout knocking the bowman who was preparing another shot off balance.

Just then I heard a loud thud as the axeman attempted an overhead swing that left him off balance as he discovered what I already knew; he couldn’t use the oversized weapon properly in this room and I quickly spun towards him hoping that the swordsman and mage would be distracted by the mistakes their allies had been making as I activated my new Slash Skill only to realise that I had made a mistake myself when the Skill failed to activate.

Snarling I quickly finished the motion myself as the axeman let go of his weapon leaving it stuck in the ceiling but was unable to completely dodge my clumsy attack which cut a groove across his broad chest.

Spinning back towards the rest of the group just in time for another blast of flames to wash over me I yelped in pain as my flesh started to sizzle and once again, I swung my naginata blindly in the hopes of warding off the rest of them. Thankfully the jet of flames passed over Tylie who was still unconscious at my feet in fact I think I actually kicked her accidentally because just then she grunted as though in pain, it was actually almost a miracle that this was the first time that had happened but I couldn’t afford to do so again she was far too injured already and I had no way of checking her health. It was lucky that we were all still low levelled because if that mage had more powerful spells, I would’ve failed my mission right then.

My wild swing didn’t hit anything as it turned out that they had been either trying to avoid the flames themselves or remembered that I had actually hit one of them the last time someone got too close while I was blinded by the flames that I had run through when I first entered the room.

Once the flames cleared I was down to around half my HP and glanced down at the still unconscious Tylie before deflecting a swing from one of the swordsmen with my Ward which shattered upon impact allowing the blade to cut shallowly into my arm, even though it seemed that these players were far from pros I was still outnumbered and it wouldn’t be long before the axeman simply chose to grab me so that his friends could finish me off, it was also at this moment that I realised that I still hadn’t re-equipped my Naginata properly and I quickly spat the command as I brought the weapon up before finally unleashing Slash against a living target for the first time.

The head of my naginata glowed white as it accelerated at a speed that I would be unable to mimic in real life slicing towards the swordsman who had attacked me as he tried to recover from the blow that I had deflected.

A gurgle erupted from him as my attack slashed through his throat, unlike in real life this wasn’t enough to kill him, but it was still considered a an extremely damaging hit by the game and arterial blood sprayed from the gaping wound splattering me and Tylie as he staggered back.

Apparently, this was the thing that finally woke Tylie up as she stirred at my feet as the blood spayed over her face and her eyes fluttered as she took in the sight of the blood covering my body her eyes widening in shock as she saw the burns that now covered me.

“It’s about bloody time!” I snarled as the other players looked on in surprise, they had obviously thought that she was so badly injured she wouldn’t be waking up before they finished me off but thankfully luck wasn’t on their side.

Deflecting another blow with my naginata I pulled a potion out of my Inventory and dropped it to her as I ducked under an arrow and missed blocking a sword stroke which cut shallowly into my arm and causing even more blood to drip down onto Tylie’s horrified face even as she mechanically drank the potion.

I was reaching my limit, there was no way that my HP was going to last much longer but I still had no way of making sure that Tylie got to safety. Just then the axeman finally got his act together grabbing me from behind and looping his arms around my shoulders while I was distracted by Tylie’s awakening and the pain from my fresh injury.

Things had decidedly taken a turn for the worst and as one of the swordsmen dropped his weapon to backhand me across the face, blood spraying across the room as my lip split from the impact, I wondered whether the innkeeper had managed to get in contact with the guards or not.

Everything started to fall apart now that I had been immobilised, Tylie was in no shape to fight her way out and had been dragged across the room so that they could force her to watch me getting beaten to a pulp and soon my HP was blinking rapidly at me from its spot in the corner of my vision having been cut down to an almost invisible sliver and my vision was fading in and out so they decided that they would switch things up and torment Tylie instead.

But then we heard a loud banging sound followed by the door being smashed to smithereens as a familiar figure charged through carrying a one-handed axe and small shield. A pained smile crept across my face as he swung his weapon removing the heads of two of the players with ease. Jameson was finally here to save the day once more.

Roaring with rage as he saw our broken bodies Jameson ignored the jet of flame that shot towards him and the arrow that followed immediately aftger simply glanced off his armour. This was the difference between both their levels and equipment making the massive man all but indestructible as far as these players were concerned but also led me to a troubling thought.

These players were far too weak to have left Tylie in the state tat she was in anything like the length of time that they had and even if they could’ve defeated her, they would’ve lost at least one of their number.

Before I had even finished the thought, I was moving, rising to my feet and launching myself at the figure that was slowly fading into existence behind Jameson, a jagged black dagger clenched in its right hand.

Jameson’s eyes widened as he saw me move but he didn’t react fast enough to stop me crashing into him and knocking him off balance causing the figure to miss its strike. The hooded figure hissed at me as it realised its attack had been foiled and before anyone else could react it slashed down at me with its dagger ripping a gaping hole in my chest.

The face of the figure was partially hidden by the hood that it was wearing but I could still see its lips curled into a snarl as my world faded to black only to be rather rudely replaced by a large blue screen.

You have Died!

You have lost 33% of the experience that you have earned.

Due to the brutal nature of your death Gransoft Entertainment would like to recommend that you join one of their in-house Psychiatrists for a session. Please be aware that if you refuse now the next time that you experience a similar situation you will automatically be sent to one of our in-house Psychiatrists.

Accept Y or N?

I thought about this offer seriously for a few seconds. Did I need to visit a Psychiatrist because of my actions? I had basically just been beaten half to death and then committed suicide which explained why I was getting this offer in the first place but if I had just let Tylie or Jameson die it would’ve affected me far worse than what had happened to me so I decided to refuse the offer causing another screen to pop up showing me how much time had to pass before I would be allowed to Log back into the game and then this too faded away revealing the outline of a door just in front of me which I opened to reveal the familiar surroundings of my personal space and the worried form of Katy pacing back and forth.

Hearing me walk in Katy to turned towards me and asked if I was alright.

“I don’t quite know about alright,” I replied shaking my head slightly. “But I don’t think it could’ve gone much better, so I at least accept what happened.”

“Hmm, well I suppose that’s fine,” she sighed before perking up slightly. “Ooh that’s right the announcement starts in a few minutes so why don’t you go and get ready for that?”

“Alright,” I nodded, Katy was quite excited about this announcement that Gransoft was making about Soul Core Online which was also peaking my own interest as surely there had to be a reason that Katy who probably knew more about Soul Core Online than most of the programmers who worked on it was so interested in what Gransoft Entertainment wanted to announce.

I had 15 minutes before the announcement began so I exited my Rig and went to the bathroom to wash up before returning to find Katy already seated on the couch in my personal space with another bowl of popcorn on her lap.

Sitting down next to her I glanced sideways at the bowl of popcorn wondering why she felt the need to have something like that prepared.

“Want some?” she asked offering me the bowl.

After thinking about it for a while I reached out and took a handful. This was just Virtual Reality, so it wouldn’t fill me up, in fact it would probably just make me feel even hungrier when I exited my Rig later.

“I love popcorn!” she told me before tossing a kernel into the air and catching it in her mouth.

“An AI that loves popcorn isn’t something that I thought I’d ever see,” I replied with a chuckle.

“Do you know why I love popcorn?” Kay asked turning to look at me.

“No, why?”

“Because it’s something that you love, or at least something that you used to love,” Katy told me giving me a wide grin. “When you were little you used to write a blog remember? You mentioned it a lot then.”

I was more than a little dumbstruck by Katy’s statement as I could barely remember doing something like that myself. This was a piece of my past from before everything went wrong, when I had been around 10 years old, I had indeed decided to write a blog, or rather it was more something like a diary that other people could read as I mostly just wrote about what happened to me on any given day. It hadn’t been particular popular as one might expect but it was still something that I had enjoyed doing and I sometimes got comments on the views that I took on certain things like movies or books. Back then I went to the movies a lot and whenever I did, I always bought popcorn to eat while I watched whatever movie I went to see. Like Katy had thought this was because I loved popcorn back then, I still did now of course but it also reminded me of happier times, so I didn’t eat it as much now, especially because I didn’t have a lot of money these days.

“Yeah,” I sighed looking down at the virtual kernels in my hand sadly. “I did do something like that once.”

Seeing the look on my face Katy decided to change the subject, “Oh! Look it’s starting!”

Looking up I saw that the wall of my personal space had turned into a screen like one of those old wall projectors and was showing a man sitting behind a desk. This man was quite familiar to me and so he should be he was one of the most famous gaming reporters of our age Hayden Thompson. I didn’t know whether he was actually interested in the games that he covered himself but if he wasn’t, he was at least able to act like he did.

“And now we have a very special announcement from Gransoft Entertainment,” Hayden said giving us a bright smile. “Please welcome to the show the CEO of Gransoft Entertainment himself, Liam Hartright!”

“Wow, Gransoft’s going all out on this announcement if their CEO is making it,” I noted.

“As well they should,” Katy replied. “This announcement will change everything.”

I turned to look at my AI companion in surprise at this.

“Wait you know what the announcement is?”

“Of course,” Katy replied giving me an enigmatic smile. “You are already starting to figure things out for yourself, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is.”

And with these words she turned back to the screen as a surprisingly young man sat down next to Hayden.

Little did I know was that Katy was right what was about to be said in front of the billions of viewers watching this announcement was going to change everything.